Can anyone give a reasonable argument as to why marijuana should be illegal?

It seems the government needs to manufacture studies and use scare tacticts about how legalizing marijuana would be a disastrous social experiment. Then lie about the health benifits in an attempt to keep marijuana out of the hands of glaucoma patients. (A cruelty that should not be tolerated) I was just wondering if their is a valid reason for all the chaos.

Makes less sense than prohibition.

Let's look at this issue a bit more methodically.

Now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, there is no doubt in anybody's mind regarding the harmful effects of smoking. Smoking is so bad that the effects actually cause illness in others through second hand smoke. In fact many cities have prohibited smoking in public places including the outdoors and in individual's own private owned vehicles. Now smoked marijuana contains the same chemicals that cigarettes have and has been shown to have four times the carcinogens as a cigarette. Now I know that most cigarette smokers smoke from a pack (20 cigarettes) a day or more, which equates to 5 joints or more a day. Nonetheless the dangers are the same.

If we want marijuana for its medical effects we are looking at the compounddelta-9-tetrahydracannabinol (THC). It is all about the THC. THC from smoking a joint reaches the blood stream in about 30 minutes and has a half-life or about 6 - 8 hours. This means the analagesic effects are fast acting and last for short periods of time requiring multiple doses within a day to provide relief. Herein lies a problem something known as a dose-effect. The more a person uses a drug for pain, the less its dose lasts within the body, meaning that where once 4 joints could provide relief for a patient in a day, soon the dose needs to be increased.

Now, there is THC in a tablet form, this form has none of the respiratory effects of the smoked marijuana, so in that respect it is safer. In tablet form the THC reaches the blood stream in about 1 to 6 hours, which means that it is a little slower acting, however, it has a half-life in the blood steam of 20 - 36 hours. So whereas it may be slower acting it lasts longer requiring less doses per day. Even with dose-effect, the tablets per day required would never increase significantly as with the smoked marijuana.

Now, the problem with THC is the side-effect that are known. THC use can lead to acute toxic psychosis, depersonalization, paranoa, depression and in rare case extreme agressiveness. This occurs with both smoked and tablet form.

The APA (American Psychiatric Association) in its Diganostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders has a complete section on THC use, The mental disorders associated with its use include:

Cannabis Intoxication
Cannabis Intoxication Delirium
Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder
Cannabis Induced Anxiety Disorder

So it is clear that THC use effects the CNS (central nervous system) causing slow motor reflexes, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, impairment of short-term memory, causes distortion in time perception, and interferes with a person's ability to interpret complex information.

This is the main reason that there is a debate within the medical community regarding the use of medical marijuana. Each night I watch on TV as one commercial after another appears regarding this law firm or that law firm wanting to sue a drug manufacturer for the side effects of various drugs. This drug can cause this or that so why not sue??? Yet not a one about THC, and since some of its side-effects are more extreme than the drugs mentioned I wonder why????

Drugs are pulled because of their side effects every day, some less serious than THC. I am sorry, but if we want to use marijuana as a drug, fine, then lets hold it to the same standard as other drugs, if we are only going to weigh its use on it effectiveness then we should only weigh all drugs on their effectiveness. To do anything less would be unequal.

dmk

OMG
really????
the APA has stated that use of THC will result in .... GETTING HIGH????????
worse yet: HAPPY HIGH?????????
OMG
WHO'D'VE THUNK IT???????????

marijuana being illegal is stupid

How simple, you focus on getting high, but ignore the other listed side effects. If it is all about what the drug does, then why is there not a demand for the tablet. See that is just it, for the so-called user it is all about the high, and its effect. You see how simple that is, if it were about the result, then the tablet would not be a problem and this debate could be closed, but for those want to use it, they are trying to have an illegal drug made legal because of its medical effects.

dmk

Actually, I think any medical benefits of marijuana is completely irrelevant in the argument for its legalization. Likewise, the medical negative consequences are irrelevant, too. It's really a debate about whether the government has a place in telling what people can or cannot do with their own bodies.

of course I focused on the two "side-effects" I mentioned - as they are HALF of the side effects. LOL

I'm sure that every marijuana user is going to think twice about using marijuana when they find out that it's been PROVEN that marijuana not only causes one to get high - but to get "happy" high!

I don't smoke - haven't smoked pot since college a bazillion and ten years ago. But I don't think it should be illegal. I also don't smoke cigarettes - I don't believe they should be banned either.

:shrug

I'm not into fascism

Herein lies your problem, it is not always a happy high, it also causes paranoa and depersonalization. Those are not happy attitudes but rather ones that put the person in direct contrast to acceptable standards of society. Since the fact that THC addition has been shown to cause bipolar disorder and aggressiveness you contention is once again disproven. Again you ignore the main point of my argument. Since drugs created by companies have been sued for side effects that are less damaging than marijuana, why is it not held to the same standard???? Obviously that is a question that you wish to ignore. Well I won't let you.

dmk

But government has long told people what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Has that not been the whole point of government???? Sacrificing some freedoms for the overall benefit of all within a society??/ Seatbelt laws, helmet laws, prostitution, etc?????

dmk